Bucky Barnes Archives - Robot 6 @ Comic Book Resources

Conventions | Although the planned $500 million expansion of the San Diego Convention Center is, by all appearances, dead, Comic-Con International isn’t ready to say what it will do when its contract expires in 2016. “With regard to the convention center expansion, I can say that any decision to remain in San Diego has always been dependent upon a number of factors, and no one issue could really trump the others,” says David Glanzer, Comic-Con’s director of marketing and public relations. He notes that organizers previously worked with the city, convention center and hotels to expand programming venues, and they continue to discuss such issues as “space, hotel rates and other logistical factors that need to be addressed if we are to remain in San Diego.”

The proposed expansion would have added 740,000 square feet of exhibit space, a five-acre rooftop park, a waterfront promenade with retail shops and restaurants, and a second, 500-room tower to the adjacent Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel. However, a California appeals court ruled Aug. 1 that a planned hotel tax intended to pay for the bulk of the costs was unconstitutional, as it was never put to a citywide vote. Anaheim and Los Angeles attempted to woo Comic-Con away from San Diego in 2010. [ICv2.com]

When Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting revived Bucky Barnes as the Winter Soldier, the character once best described as a plot device was elevated to a fan-favorite superhero — and a movie headliner. And now, he’s been immortalized in stained glass.

Based on an illustration by Axeeeee, this stained glass piece by Etsy artist RavingsAside uses authentic Murano glass for the snow-like background, German antique red glass for the Soviet star, and silverfoil glass the cybernetic arm. The artist has posted pictures of the piece during production on Tumblr to showcase how it was done. Here’s a look at the finished piece:

“Everyone who’s ever written Captain America has wanted to bring Bucky back, and I was the first person who arrived at a time where they were willing to … The whole thing when Bucky died was a ret-con that Stan Lee did because he didn’t like sidekicks, and Jack Kirby went along with it because he thought it was this great way to add tragedy to Captain America […] But honestly, when I got the book, I was asked, ‘What would you want to do?’ and I said, ‘Well, I have this idea about how to bring back Bucky, where he is like a really cool bad guy who’s actually an adult.’ And Joe Quesada said, ‘Oh, that’s really interesting, because we just this big summit where we were arguing over whether we could bring back Bucky or not, because Captain America is not selling.’

I was working on a thing with Gene Colan years later — his last comic that he ever did; he drew Captain America, he co-created the Falcon — and I asked him, ‘How come you guys never brought Bucky back?’ And he said, ‘Oh, y’know, we were doing this story where Bucky came back and he turned out to be a robot, and I asked Stan, “Why don’t we have it be the real Bucky?” and he said, “Aw, sales aren’t low enough yet.”‘ Stan was always OK with [resurrecting Bucky], because he always left the door open — like when Bucky died, they always put the word ‘supposedly’ in there, so I felt like the door was left open. I got a lot of flak for it at the time, because it was a ret-con, but I also tried really hard to make sure the ret-con worked with the actual con, if that makes sense.”

– Ed Brubaker, in a wide-ranging discussion that touches upon his Captain America run, his collaborations with Sean Phillips and Steve Epting, and the five-year deal he and Phillips signed with Image Comics

Shirow Miwa, the artist best known for his action manga Dogs, recently tweeted a series of sketches inspired by Captain America: The Winter Soldier that could spur an editor to lobby for another take on Marvel Mangaverse. Seldom has Steve Rogers or Bucky Barnes looked so pouty …

Check out some of the drawings below, and visit Crunchyroll or Miwa’s Twitter feed to see more Winter Soldier, as well as Godzilla and adorable takes on Thor, Loki, Batman and The Joker.

Conventions | Motor City Comic Con founder Michael Goldman has apologized to fans for the long lines they had to endure to get into the event on Saturday, writing in a message on Facebook, “We never expected 18,000+ people to attend that day, which was the same amount of people we had over the entire three days last year. We were literally hit with a ‘Humanity Bomb’ and were not prepared for the sheer number of people attending, even with a large increase in our staff.” More than 30,000 people attended over the course of three days, with attendees reportedly waiting for up to two hours on Saturday just to get into the parking lot, and then another one to four hours to get in the doors. Golden said he is already working on avoiding the same problem next year. [Facebook]

Retailing | Brian Berlin of New World Comics in Oklahoma City is offering free comics and appearances by costumed characters for children left hospitalized or homeless by the tornadoes that struck Oklahoma this week. [Nerdage]

Thanks to my interview with writer Jason Latour (regarding Loose Ends in mid-2011), my attention was piqued when Marvel tapped him to succeed Ed Brubaker on Winter Soldier. Latour’s run begins Wednesday with Winter Soldier #15. In anticipation of that, Latour agreed to an interview in which I interrogated him about the collaborative dynamics with artist Nic Klein, Bucky Barnes coming to terms with his past, guiding a supporting cast that includes the legendary Nick Fury, and the introduction, and naming, of new characters. Also be sure to check out CBR’s preview of Winter Soldier #15.

Tim O’Shea: When scripting an issue, given that you are also an artist, do you sketch out thumbnails for artist Nic Klein to consider?

Jason Latour: Not really, no. I did do one unused thumbnail, and only because Nic asked. When you’ve survived German art Thunderdome like he has, you need no man’s help. He’s like Art Beast Omega.

Yeah, being able to draw is definitely a great tool to have in a pinch. But in general I try not to do layouts because that part of drawing is largely the artist’s contribution to the story. I don’t want to encroach too heavily on that. Even if they do something I don’t agree with here or there, we’ll all be much better off with an invested collaborator. I am open to thumbnailing a book for someone else to finish, but it would have to be the understanding beforehand. I’m much more likely to do design work, because sometimes it just dramatically improves communication.

Marvel has provided Robot 6 with an exclusive first look at February’s Winter Soldier #1, by Ed Brubaker and Butch Guice. Officially announced in early November, the ongoing series stars Bucky Barnes and Black Widow as what Brubaker describes as “a bit like the Mr. & Mrs. Smith team,” with Nick Fury as a member of the supporting cast.

An espionage thriller, the comic launches out of the revelation that the Russians created other Winter Soldier-like sleeper agents, and will feature new villains linked to Bucky’s Cold War history.